"Why do you need CRM?" - this question is usually asked by managers - users of various CRM-systems, on which the management entrusts the work of filling the CRM-system with data. Why is it so difficult to answer the question succinctly and succinctly? Let's see what CRM is in principle.
"Customer relationship management" translated into Russian is a little more understandable, but not quite yet. Each of us has a social circle: family, relatives, friends, colleagues. And, naturally, there is some kind of relationship with each of this circle. What is your relationship with Vasya? - Close, friendly. - And with Pyotr Ivanitch? - Business. It is unlikely that you often thought about it, but one way or another, you constantly manage the relationship with each member of your social circle.
Surely many had the following situation: “For some reason I haven’t been to my grandmother’s, I should have stopped by to visit her”. Why, in fact, visit your grandmother? To pay attention to her, to fulfill the duty of a good grandson, to communicate. Or to spend time together, discuss news, relatives, elections. Most likely, you yourself will not exactly answer this question, you just know that it is time to visit your grandmother. Or, for example, an old friend calls you: “Hello! Something has not been selected for a long time. Let's go to the club this weekend? At this point, your companion is in control of the relationship with you.
Think, because if you wear the status of "best friend", it obliges you to do more than if you are "just an acquaintance." For the sake of your best friend, you will drive to the other side of the city at 3 am. And for the sake of yesterday's casual acquaintance? Or, for example, having drunk too much in the company, you told everyone what a funny story happened to Petya, and Petya was offended at you because he didn't want everyone to know. And the next day you apologize to Petya and invite him to the bar at your expense to make amends. This is how you manage your relationship with Petya.
But back from friends and family to clients. If you have customers, then one way or another you are selling something. And it does not matter at all whether these are goods or services, what level of competition in your market and what your income is. You have a customer base, and you need to at least maintain and maintain it, as a maximum - expand.
The moment has come to take a diary or a notebook with notes from a drawer and proudly say: "Here is my client base!" The diary has a bookmark for the current date, the corners of the pages of past dates have been torn off, important events are recorded in a special column at the bottom of the page. Successful meetings are highlighted in pink, and those that failed are highlighted in blue. Seem to be? Now let's collect statistics from the diary: how many of the meetings you held in the week before last ended successfully? How many clients after negotiations have you made another appointment and on what date? How many appointments do you have for the next month? And what date did you have a meeting with S. V. Ivanov? You will be able to answer all these questions quickly only if the number of clients in your base is very modest.
On an "industrial" scale, customer relations require software that allows performing the minimum set of operations: searching, filtering, sorting data. Of the additional functions, automatic reminders and mailings make it much easier to work with clients.
You probably remember, without a diary and a sticky piece of paper on the monitor, the birthdays of your parents and closest friends, the name of your best friend's dog, the names of your long-time classmates. Do you remember when your colleague's birthday is from the second office, the one on the right? It is unlikely, because even the name is difficult to remember. And this is not surprising, because he is not one of those people about whom such details need to be remembered. The human brain constantly sorts information and arbitrarily assigns a status - which is important, which is not important, which can be completely thrown out of the head. Why, having a hundred or two clients in the database, is it difficult to keep in mind all the important dates, names, events? First, the amount of information is too large, and secondly, your brain is unlikely to consider this information significant. A CRM system is an additional "memory". You just need to enter the data, and at the right time, a reminder of the meeting will appear, or your client's birthday greetings will automatically be sent to the mail.
Imagine that a new face appears in your company. Some acquaintance of acquaintances whom one of your friends invited to spend time together. How you treat him depends on your character, manners and mood, but no matter what, your communication with a new acquaintance will begin with "control questions" to each other. Moreover, most likely these questions will be from the category of "general": what do you do, where do you live, what are your hobbies. Of course, you will tell us something about yourself. Also from the "general" category. This is called "cold contact" - you do not have a history of communication with a new acquaintance, you collect information, give him status and refer to some group within your social circle. Moreover, you can do all this completely unconsciously, but at the end of the evening you will definitely conclude: "What an interesting person he is!" or vice versa "We have nothing in common with him!" The next time you meet a new acquaintance, depending on the first experience, your communication will become more specific, because you have already collected the initial information about each other. Either you have a lot in common, and you will assign a new status to it, or you prefer to leave acquaintances to your acquaintances.
Likewise, the client, having addressed you for the first time, is a "cold contact" for you. As are you for him. But then the client received the information that interested him and with the words “I need to think” leaves. If you did not take the contact phone number from him, then you can only hope that the client will come back. You do not manage this relationship, you just have to wait for the client's decision. What if the client comes back, but you are not in the office? Your colleague, upon first seeing this client, will also be dealing with a cold contact.
A corporate CRM system necessarily implies a single information space where customer data is stored. If you took contacts from a client and entered them into a single corporate database, and also saved the essence and result of your negotiations, then the next time the client contacts your company, any manager will be able to refer to the history of relationships. Having information about why the client came the last time, what was offered to him and how the meeting ended, your colleague, even during the first contact with the client, will not deal with "cold contact". Compare situations:
Client: - I visited you yesterday and talked with your colleague.
Manager: - Yes, I am aware that you were interested, I can offer you the following options …
Or:
Client: - I visited you yesterday and talked with your colleague.
Manager: - Tell us, what did you agree on?
For the client, you and your colleague are equal representatives of the company he contacted. And if you do not have information about the appeal, you have to "win" the client again. That is, every time you deal with "cold" contacts. In the first scenario of the development of the situation, the client does not have to waste time telling about why he came and what he needs - this information is already available to the manager. A positive image of the company is formed in the eyes of the client, since the employees are aware of his needs, which means they are engaged in it. Make the client feel significant!
If a client contacted the company with a complaint or a claim, it is especially important to let him know that his issue is being dealt with. After all, if a client knocks on the doorstep of offices in search of a solution, and every time he is asked “tell me what happened?”, Then this client's loyalty to the company in the future can hardly be counted on.
Attracting new customers is usually the task of the marketing and advertising department. But how do you know how efficiently they work? For example, last month they put up a banner ad and hundreds of new customers appeared in your database. In order to assess the effectiveness, it is necessary to calculate the number of customers who were "brought" by the banner and the profit that the company received from these customers. To do this, it is necessary that the source is indicated in the corporate system - where did the client find out about the company, and there should also be information about mutual settlements with the client. You also need to know the level of costs, in this case - for the banner. If a company uses different sources for advertising, you can rank them and visually see which advertising source is the most effective.
So, a customer relationship management system is needed to:
1. Storage of the customer base
2. Analysis of the customer base
3. Planning customer interactions
4. Rapid preparation of reports on work with clients
5. Automation of frequently performed operations: sending letters, SMS, reminders of planned events
6. Evaluating the effectiveness of marketing activities
But we have not answered the question stated in the title: "Why is customer relationship management necessary?" Indeed, why manage relationships at all, especially with customers? Then, why are you visiting your grandmother, go to the club with your best friend and take Petya to the bar. To find a way to the heart of the client, so that he wants to come back to you again and again. After all, the presence of regular customers is the key to a solid foundation for the prosperity of your company.
